What is biological age and how is it measured?

[A. Hammouda]

What is meant by ‘biological age”?

How is it different from chronological age?

How can it be measured?

[Keith Johnson]

Chronological age is the number of years one has been alive, while biological age refers to how old one’s cells and tissues are, based on physiological evidence.

Biological age may be lower or higher than chronological age. If one is healthy and fit for age, the biological age is lower than the chronological age. But if one is sedentary, chronically ill, or in poor physical condition, the biological age may be higher.

Biological age is more accurate than chronological age for predicting the onset of disease, morbidity, and death. While chronological age is a measurement of how many days one has been alive, biological age is a measurement of how much life one likely has left, based on one’s physiology at any given time.

Biological age is mainly determined genetically by the length of telomeres, and epigenetically by DNA methylation. In addition, there are markers of aging in the transcriptome and metabolome.

 

[Dinos]

Biological age depends on the genes that we inherited and our environment and lifestyle. Here you find a biological age calculator based on lifestyle, activity, nutrition, sleep pattern, smoking, and alcohol use:

This biological age calculator shows how old your body really is (msn.com)

 

[C. Shwan]

Aging clocks are computational models thought to predict biological age. They are constructed using the age‐related alterations, mainly in the epigenome. The difference between biological age and the chronological age correlates with disease burden, mortality, and health. Various studies indicate that aging clocks are sensitive to health‐promoting and deleterious interventions.

[Author]

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